In this chapter we take the discussion of Indigenous Law further, by exploring the problematic notion of soft power and examining the epistemic logics and bad habits that have led to a perception of Indigenous Laws and knowledges as marginal, esoteric and mystical. It is argued that the positioning of Indigenous Law as an esoteric or subordinate alternative to contemporary white liberal democracy is a framing which substantiates a deep inequity between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples and communities.Problematising the interface at which Indigenous Laws meets western bureaucratic and legal habits is however only one part of this chapter. It is crucial to retain our focus on Indigenous Laws as they are lived and held by people within their own communal contexts. Hence the chapter importantly attends to the positioning on Indigenous Laws in contemporary life, placing an emphasis on the role of Law in supporting communities, amidst the changing conditions and contexts in which Law is emplaced. We explore the overarching applications of Indigenous Laws for Indigenous benefit.

This chapter provides the contextual background for a case study of Yanyuwa Law and how this Law relates to the ownership of Country. Indigenous Law is explored through knowledge and practice that structures rights to and control over lands and waters, ecological understandings and processes, relationships between human and non-human kin, political structures and decision-making. Law is presented in this chapter not as liminal but as wholly attached to Indigenous peoples’ lands and waters. Too often popular notions of Indigenous Law reduce it to ‘folklore’, mysticism, fables and legends. Through an ethnographically rich account of Law, land/sea rights and succession in one remote Aboriginal communal context, this chapter invites the reader into a close encounter with Indigenous Law.

Law is the most immersive of concepts in an Indigenous cultural context. It is a nuanced schema for human existence, and goes beyond a system of justice or governance as might be the conventional and western understanding of law, to shape and give meaning to all aspects of life. Indigenous Law provides the logic and rationale for life, as inclusive of ancestral and creator beings, humans and non-humans, the place world and all types of natural phenomena. Law instates the relations between all emplaced elements and beings.This opening chapter serves to establish the context and scene for a sensitive and respectful discussion of Indigenous Law, acknowledging the varied language that is used around the world to describe and analyse different iterations of Indigenous Laws, ranging from Law, customary law, knowledge, tradition, religion and spiritualism.

In this chapter we present a demonstration of Indigenous Law in practice at a local level, a detailed account of an oral testimony given by Yanyuwa elder Old Arthur Narnungawurruwurru (Old Arthur). This example demonstrates how key individuals within the Yanyuwa community would come together to make collectively agreed-upon decisions, in alignment with the practice and continuation of Law. The story as outlined in this chapter was shared with one of the authors (Bradley) by Old Arthur himself, at the request of his niece, and co-author Annie a-Karrakayny, a senior Yanyuwa Law woman. The testimony relates to matters of the Dreaming, kinship, succession, land and sea rights and political decision-making processes. In the first part of this chapter, we present this account of Law piece by piece, first in Yanyuwa language and then in translated English.This chapter shows the many ways in which Law has complexity. This is a vision of Indigenous cultures and their Laws as highly adept at accommodating, resisting and negotiating internal pressures, but even more so the external pressures that distinguish settler colonial and Indigenous relations.

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